


Very Sincerely Yours

by mistyzeo



Category: Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: 221B Ficlet, Character Death, Grief/Mourning, Husbands, Love, M/M, Old Age, Retirement
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-02
Updated: 2014-01-02
Packaged: 2018-01-07 05:33:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1116118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mistyzeo/pseuds/mistyzeo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All lives end.  All hearts are broken.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Very Sincerely Yours

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what came over me.

I am already calling out for him as I reach the cottage door.  “Watson!”  I throw it open, always so dramatic.  “Watson!”

The house is quiet.  My husband's head is visible above the back of his armchair, resting on the wing.

“Watson,” I say again. My stomach is already sinking.  When I get no response, no grumble of annoyance, I know.

Once more, as I round his chair, “Watson.”  The wildflowers I carried are scattered on the floor, and in their place I gather his gentle fingers, his sturdy wrists.  His features are soft, the facsimile of sleep.  I touch his throat, smooth a thumb over his snow-white moustache, feel for the beat of his heart.

I don’t regret anything of the last ten years.  I don’t regret anything of the last ten hours.  When I left the house after breakfast, it was with a kiss and a murmured declaration of affection.  He squeezed my hand and told me he loved me, as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world.

The rug provides no comfort under my knees as I bury my face against his stomach. He smells of tobacco and sea air and late-summer sun. Ten minutes, I think. I might have missed him by as little as ten minutes. "Watson," I say, and I cannot breathe.


End file.
